Yagapriya - A New Look for the Improviser

A collection of scales and melodic patterns based on the 31st Melakarta, for use by the contemporary improviser.

A collection of scales and melodic patterns based on the 31st Melakarta and its relationship to the Neo-Riemannian “Tonnetz” , for use by the contemporary improviser.

"Yagapriya - A New Look for the Improviser" is 40 page mini e-book collection of scales and melodic patterns in 12 keys, based on the 31st Melakarta and its relationship to the Neo-Riemannian “Tonnetz” , for use by the contemporary improviser.

Yagapriya is the 31st raga, out of a total of 72, in the Carnatic (South Indian) Melakarta system of seven-note parent ragas, from which other smaller ragas are derived.

Besides its Carnatic origin, this book was inspired as much by my belated introduction to the Neo-Riemannian “Tonnetz” (German for “tone network” and pronounced "tone netz"), which clearly illustrates Yagapriya's internal intervallic and chordal relationships.

The melodic patterns here were conceived as non Carnatic in nature. Instead, they focus, for the most part, on a more familiar blues oriented coloration, due to the presence of both Major and minor 3rds & 6ths.

Once it becomes familiar, this can be a very natural, earthy sounding scale. The absence of a b7 or #4 doesn't prevent Yagapriya from being one funkified pitch collection!

One suggestion would be to play the scale, exercises, patterns, etc. against a drone of different scale tones, know in Carnatic terms as "graha bhedam".